


Follower Count (Tangled OC Ship Week - Day 2)

by AirbenderBigMac



Category: Tangled (2010), Tangled: The Series (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Amputee, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Tangled OC Ship Week, Youtuber AU, self-care
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 18:27:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15491979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AirbenderBigMac/pseuds/AirbenderBigMac
Summary: For Day 2 of Tangled OC Ship Week: Modern AU. Enjoy!





	Follower Count (Tangled OC Ship Week - Day 2)

“Um, I’m pretty sure that's not how physics work.”

It was no use. Somehow in the game, an explosion caused Varian's character to start glitching again, this time in mid-air. No amount of button mashing would stop its rapid first-person spinning from the high-resolution sky to the ground and back again.

The teen stared, dumbfounded at his screen. Had it not been for the red light blinking out of the corner of his eye, he would’ve forgotten there was a camera on.

“U-um, okay?” he sputtered, not sure whether to throw his head back and laugh or chuck his controller across the room. “I guess that’s the end of that, then.”

He took a deep breath, collecting himself. This was hardly rage quit material. At least Varian managed to get a couple hours worth of video this time. The indie game he’d tried earlier in the week had been virtually unplayable, completely crashing his computer less than ten minutes in. The only bright side was the attention he garnered from his ensuing tantrum, making it the first of his videos to hit five digits in views. Adjusting his microphone, he calmly turned to give the camera his review.

“So all in all, _Lunar Drop_ is a pretty decent game,” he said, taking a brief look at his notes. _Keep a friendly posture, maintain eye contact, DON’T WAVE YOUR ARMS—WILL HIT MICROPHONE!!_ “Good story, pretty standard gameplay, really neat graphics, especially for a beta, but...damn, it's got some real bugs to work on. I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out when it's all finished. Until then, this is VariumOxide signing off. See you next time!”

Varian sat back in his chair, heaving a sigh of relief. 2,380 subscribers since he first started his account and his nerves still tried to get the better of him. _Lunar Drop_ was a fairly quiet game, which left him to fill in the gaps between cutscenes with his own rambling. With any luck, he’d be able to get rid of his more ridiculous monologues while editing.

Ugh, editing. He rolled his eyes at the thought. Easily the most boring part of the work. Luckily, he had a few vloggers he could play in the background to ease the monotony.

Checking his subscriptions, he was disappointed to find that _she_ hadn’t uploaded anything for the week. Odd, she was usually very prompt about her schedule. Popular vloggers were good at that stuff. Varian often found himself struggling to keep a consistent stream of content and was usually down to the wire on his deadlines. But he couldn’t remember a time when she’d forgotten to post. No doubt she had at least one other person to help her out.

He supposed it was no matter. Scrolling through her videos, he felt his cheeks heat up at one in particular. It was over a year old with over two hundred thousand hits and Varian was certain at least a third of them were his. He couldn’t help it, though; it was the first video that really drew him to her. It was almost involuntary, the way his mouse drifted over to click on it again.

“Hi, everyone! It’s FlamingoJun again, and today I’m in a strange, empty room.”

Immediately, Varian felt the tension in his shoulders ease. He couldn’t explain it. Something about the gentle, silvery voice and smiling face of Juniper “FlamingoJun” Abdul made his stress melt away like a Jolly Rancher left in his back pocket. Not exactly in an ASMR way, but a familiar, personable manner that made it seem like she was talking to each viewer individually.

“Or it’s my new apartment. Can’t remember which, it’s been a long day.”

He left the video playing as he pulled up his editing software. No need for him to watch it, he had it practically memorized. Besides, he knew no amount of pastel DIY tutorials could save the garbage warzone that served as his bedroom.

“But since I’m here, I thought I’d throw together a video for you, nothing fancy this time,” Jun announced. “The other day, I got a message from someone that really struck a chord with me. I got their permission to read it out loud, so here it is, from Rosegirl98: ‘Hey Jun, I could really use some advice. My sibling recently moved out and now I have my own room. She used to be the one I went to when I was feeling upset or depressed, and now I guess I’m really messed up about it. I can’t even find the energy to start filling in her side of the room with my own things. I keep thinking she’s going to come back, and it just feels silly because she didn’t move that far away. Do you have any tips?’”

Varian looked back at the video, watching her flop down on a mostly-bare mattress surrounded by boxes and tuck her prosthetic leg underneath her. She was quiet for a moment, her brow furrowed while she twisted a strand of hair in thought. It was surprising that she kept all of this in, but what did Varian know about vlogs?

“I can’t say I know exactly how you feel, Rosegirl,” Jun said, choosing her words carefully, “but I can tell you how I feel right now. I’ve just moved into my first big girl apartment all by myself, and can you guess how I’m doing?”

There was a cut, and suddenly she was uncomfortably close to the camera. Her fierce gold eyes were wide, completely filling the screen and threatening to swallow Varian whole as she answered.

“I’m anxious as shit, thank you very much.”

It cut again, and she was back on her bed.

“Everything in the moving process has felt like a giant conspiracy to tell the world that FlamingoJun just isn’t ready to be a proper adult. My down payment wound up being twice as much as I thought, I have neighbors upstairs that’re up at weird hours, the whole apartment had to get bombed for fleas because of the last tenants. It’s like everything kinda spiraled out of my control and I don’t know what I did _wrong_. So for the last couple days, I haven’t even wanted to look at all the junk I need to unpack.”

She ran a hand through her curly hair and grabbed one of the smaller boxes at the foot of her bed.

“But here’s the thing, Rosegirl. It’s a little thing, but it’s a thing.” Jun blindly opened the box and pulled out its contents: a lava lamp. “Figuring out where this lava lamp goes is something I have control over. I make videos talking about how important it is to have a space just for you, something you have complete control over. But the truth is, not everyone has the time or motivation to make sure their bedspread matches the floor molding or some crap like that. Sometimes the path to finding your space is gradual, like just opening the box closest to you and deciding where to put it.”

Varian kept watching for a few more minutes, chin in hand and eyes glazed over before he remembered why he put the video on in the first place.

“ _My deadline!_ ”

* * *

_LOL his freakouts are so funny! Great video_

_Stupid f*** can’t even play the game right. You’re supposed to fight monsters, dumbass._

_Dear Video Game <3ers, PLEASE CHECK OUT MY CHANNEL!! _

_He screams higher than my grades and dreams._

_Fake._

“Okay, that last one doesn’t even make sense!” Varian cried out. The sudden outburst startled Ruddiger from his nap and the raccoon began wriggling around indignantly in his cage. Sure, his _Edgeworld_ playthrough wasn’t the best, but he couldn’t take it _down_ , could he? Even if he’d gotten too scared to fight the big boss and spent the rest of the video gardening instead, he’d still managed to get a few good jokes in. Hadn’t he?

He groaned. Only a few more notifications to go, he could do this.

_lol I remember screaming the first time I saw the boss too_

_Skip to 8:46 for BEST freakout face._

_Ok but for real why is gardening so complicated in this game???_

_Is it weird that I found the gardening parts so soothing? I was having a really rotten week and your sense of humor got the first laugh out of me in a while. Looking forward to the next part!_

Varian smiled, glancing at Ruddiger, who was still trying to get comfortable again. “Got kind of a mixed bag today, but that last one was pretty nice.”

There was a _PING_ from a different tab—another comment, maybe? He clicked on it eagerly. “Hey buddy, look! FlamingoJun finally posted something!”

As soon as the new video started, Varian could tell something was wrong. Her eyes were rimmed red and puffy, her face tired and blotchy. Her hair was sticking out in every direction, like she’d just rolled out of bed. Even the vlog’s title (“When the mess in your head becomes a mess on your floor”) was devoid of her usual capslock and liberal emoji use.

“Hi everyone, it’s FlamingoJun,” she greeted. Even her voice, while still friendly, seemed hoarse and burned out. Varian minimized his editing software, feeling the need to give the vlog his undivided attention. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Sorry I kinda dropped off the face of the earth there, life’s been a little...crazy.”

She pressed the tips of her fingers to her temples, letting out a long sigh to gather her thoughts.

“Specifically, the last week or so has been crazy. I lost my job at Hobby Lobby because they didn’t like the content of one of my vlogs. And no, please don’t harass them, it’s not worth it. Then _literally_ as I was leaving Hobby Lobby, my car started making this awful noise, and it turns out that’s gonna be a huge expense. And then all that led to me having this huge fight with my mom and it’s...it’s been a lot.”

Jun reached for the camera to pan it over her bedroom. Varian could hardly believe it. The normally-pristine location of so many of her DIY and self-care videos was trashed to hell. Clothes and food wrappers littered her floor and desk. An open Chinese food container was about to tip over on her bed. Her skittish pet crow, Lenore, looked more unnerved than usual as she pecked through the garbage.

“I’ve basically spent the last week in a dysthymic coma. I’ve barely left the apartment, all I’ve been ordering is take-out, I just keep binging Internet videos. I haven’t answered a single text, I’m pretty sure my friends all think I’m dead now. I don’t know, it seemed like it was all going fine but then everything happens so _much._ I was just so paralyzed, I just couldn’t bring myself to do anything.”

Her smile was beginning to falter, and Varian was all too familiar with the quiver in her tone. This was a topic that was hard for her to talk about, but also one she felt her viewers needed to hear.

“But I was watching a particular video a few days ago, and even though I don’t think it was the creator’s intention, he made me realize something. Sometimes, even when everything’s going well, stuff can get really overwhelming. And if it ever seems like too much, sometimes it’s okay to take a break from the big picture and...I don’t know, plant some flowers? Do something entirely for you, no matter how silly. Just enough for you to refresh yourself and get back to the task at hand.”

She brushed a lock of hair behind her ear, a shy grin spreading over her face. “I don’t think he’ll ever know how much I needed to hear that.”

Varian was stunned. It couldn’t be. He was sure could feel his soul leaving his body as he revisited the comments page on his _Edgeworld_ video, scrolling down to check the usernames.

_QuoththeFlamingo_

He thought he was going to faint. This didn’t feel real. Juniper Abdul had seen his videos. Juniper Abdul _liked_ one of his videos.

... _your sense of humor got the first laugh out of me in a while…_

His head was spinning. She thought he was funny. She wanted to continue watching him. But most importantly, she'd taken _comfort_ in his content. The idea of his videos giving her the same solace he felt when he listened to her vlogs, it was almost too much for him to handle. Varian rested his head on the desk for a minute; the roaring heartbeat in his ears was deafening and he was sure he was blushing all the way down his neck. He turned to Ruddiger, who eyed him warily.

“How is this _happening_?” he muttered, a nervous giggle bubbling out of him. “What do I even  _do_ with this information?”

Ruddiger gave a knowing look. _Message her, you idiot. She has an e-mail address._

It was nuts. No, it was downright insane. The very idea of talking to someone he admired for so long...he couldn’t even wrap his brain around it. What if he said something stupid? He could look like a complete _fool._

Varian’s gaze drifted to the thumbnail of the video in question. It wasn’t exactly the most flattering image: his mouth open in a scream of terror and his controller starting to fly out of his hands.

“I guess...she’s already seen me at my stupidest,” he said slowly.

_Screw it._

He shakily opened a blank message, giving the doubting voice in his head a final shove.

“ _Hey, I saw your latest video_ …”

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos are lovely but comments are nicer!
> 
> My inbox is always open at thefatesdesign.tumblr.com, if you'd like to drop by!


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